Dear comrades,
On behalf of the Central Council of EDON I warmly welcome you in Cyprus for the 19th Pancyprian Congress of our Organization. We appreciate your presence here and we look forward on strengthening our bilateral and unilateral cooperation. For us, this congress is another great opportunity to discuss and assess the actions of our organization at national and international level. This seminar, as an extension of our congress, will give us the opportunity to discuss as well as hear the point of view of other youth organizations, based on common concerns but assessed under different contexts.
The Communist forces around the globe are currently in a defensive stance. The dissolution of the Soviet Union has undoubtedly marked a significant downturn for the global communist movement as each people has lost its main supporter and guider in its struggle for socialism. This historic development lead to the rise of views that suggested the so-called end of history and the global dominance of capitalism and capitalist values. At the same time, a disgusting and shameless attack raised seeking to false the historical truth and demonize any communist or progressive force. However, whatever has been written with the blood and struggle of people cannot be erased with bourgeoisie ink.
The effort to create anti-communist perceptions throughout the globe, although it has been universal towards its end, from country to country has varied towards its means. Cyprus has not been an exception in this process, thus in our speech we shall outline some important elements of how anti-communism has developed in Cyprus.
After our election in the presidency of the Cyprus Republic during the years 2008 – 2013, all the anti-communist forces feeding from conservative and liberal parties, to neo-nazist groups that began to emerge, the church, parts of the army, reactionary teacher’s organisations, judicial system, media etc prepared for an unprecedent war. Our government was constantly under an unfair and misleading attack as it became clear that the motives of these forces were purely based on class criteria.
As the Cyprus problem is the dominant issue of the political life of Cyprus; nationalist forces targeted their attacks on this issue. Firstly, they began falsely accusing our government for having accepted conditions in the settlement of the Cyprus problem that constitute concessions. Based on this, they engaged in a nationalistic rhetoric that communists constitute a threat to our national identity. The church and opposition parties, played a critical role in the increase of extreme rhetoric, which in turn was augmented by the media, serving effectively the interests of the bourgeoisie.
Another important feature was the outburst of remembrance events and speeches towards Grivas, the leading anti-Communist military leader who planned a series of coup plans that eventually overthrew the elected president of Cyprus, Archiebishop Makarios. Voices that had been absent for years -especially after the aftermath of 1974 coup and invasion- that equate them as towards their historical responsibilities, came back to surface. Our class enemy had not even hesitated to suggest us, applying to Partnership for Peace or even NATO, an organisation responsible for drawing out the partition plans of Cyprus and eventually executing them against the people of our country. In this frame, president’s Demetris Christofias’ statements that nationalists from both communities have responsibilities for the crimes executed in the past and in general any statement that seeked to restore the historical truth were forcefully attacked as it undermined the bourgeoisie national story line.
A similar response was initiated with the attempt to reform education so as to introduce scientific attitudes towards it, modernise it and also build a re-approachement culture with our Turkish-Cypriots compatriots. The establishment proved too strong and rigid and preferred to maintain an outdated system that would serve their benefit.
Unfortunately for Cyprus, since the last parliamentary elections, ELAM an anti-Communist, nationalistic neo-nazist group has entered the parliament. ELAM is actually the branch of Greece’s Golden Dawn which is being trialled as a criminal organisation. Statement’s such as the Archiebishop’s one, that ELAM’s leadership are educated and clever people with clear positions and also the statement of the government’s Minister of Education that he shares common values with them, reveal once again the real character of the government and the church. ELAM’s members and supporters at the same time are responsible for attacking our offices, threaten EDON’s members and write in schools or other public places anti-communist messages and use nazist symbols. This indicates, whose interest they serve and the forces behind their political support. Responsibilities for this, must also be burdened on the so-called “middle ground” forces who during the last presidential elections actively asked for ELAM’s support for their candidate. Antifascist war cannot be the subject of political or electoral benefits but rather must be constant and honest.
The European Union has also played a critical role towards the promotion of anti-communism. Through the funding of programmes against nazist and so-called communist crimes a raw effort of equalising the two ideologies is attempted. Moreover, one must not forget the commemoration of the 9th of May as the Europe Day, a purposively action to downgrade the Victory Day against the nazist and fascist forces celebrated at the same day. Finally, it was with the help and intervention of the E.U. that a neo-nazists illegally took power in Ukraine.
Dear comrades,
For us, the communist and progressive youth, it must be clear what breeds these behaviours and how they must be faced. They are all part of the capitalist superstructure that struggles to keep in place a rotten and outdated system. Only through the struggle for Socialism, can such behaviours cease to exist. Otherwise, in Brecht’s words “Those who are against Fascism without being against capitalism, who lament over the barbarism that comes out of barbarism, are like people who wish to eat their veal without slaughtering the calf. They are willing to eat the calf, but they dislike the sight of blood.”
Long live the International Solidarity!
Long live the Anti-imperialist struggle!
ETKA PEO, 4th January 2019